Saturday, June 25, 2011

Sorry guys! All of a sudden, my phone didn't feel like it should let me upload anything to it for blogger so, I finally was able to get on it through my computer.
Ill start it again This Wednesday when I get back to work.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Tonight was another absolutely awesome night. I went in kinda weiry because what are the odds of having two awesome nights in a row, well my finitie mind never realized with my God anything is possible.
Man! I love how He works! I went in, it was supposed to be a slow night, so I would be able to experiment and really do a lot of different things I wouldn't normally be able to do on a night with lots of tables.
Tonight I helped a lot with banquets. I got to make large amounts of food, see how they were set up, and even see how to put out a big fire in the barn where our banquets are held!
Oh yeah and by the way, Chef offered me a shift to help out our banquet supervisors for tomorrow. Of course I am going to jump all over that, I get more hours and it puts me in the spot light, the little intern is willing to come in at 5am after he just left at 11pm.
He came up and thanked me for it and told me I was doing a really good job!
Hopefully I get a little extra reward, like a few hospitality bucks or even a polo or two with the whistling straits logo on them! Score!
Anyways. I need to go to bed asap since I will be getting up at 4am and heading over to open up Whistling Straits!
Thanks for your prayers guys, I really appreciate them and can see God doing things no one else could do.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Today was probably one of the best days yet, and I want to give all the glory to God. Yesterday was one of the worst days, today God turned it all around and showed me He is really in control.
Yesterday, the Sous Chef told me today and tomorrow would be big days for me. I had been there for a week so I knew where things were and how each station basically worked.
Last night I bit the ground, bad! She didn't say bye to me, I think she was pretty irritated at my performance.
Tonight, on the other hand, was amazing! I had plates rocking and rolling. The two stations on my sides each at food pumping out and pantry was cranking out cold apps and salads. At the end of the night she told me that we did great! She said, "it's about time we get the A team back together." That made my night, no not the giant burn on my hand or the one on my wrist, but her excitement about us was awesome!
I took a 3min break to eat dinner and thank God for working through me and helping me really understand things tonight.
We had two tables with covers of a 17 and 18 top. These are giant tables! We start banquets with 20 people, so 17 and 18 people ordering different items off the menu at the same time is crazy!
Also, tonight I broke, going into work the radio said there was going to be a heat advisory till 8pm. Coming out of work I was met at the door with a instant sweat. I went out tonight and bought a air conditioner.
Thanks for praying for me guys, I have tomorrow night where I work with murphy and Chef, then a beautiful couple days with my family.
Keep praying for me guys, I can tell how God moves in miraculous ways. Thank you!

Monday, June 6, 2011

Today was my first day back at work for bit and a early one at that. I woke up at 6am, not wanting to sleep through and miss work, to find out I didn't work till 10am so I slept again till 9am.
Last Saturday night I was asked to come in this morning early since tomorrow, Tuesday, there will be a WRA, Wisconsin Restaurant Association, golf tournament. So I went in 4 hours early to grill a bunch of meat and prep about 12 turkeys for tomorrow.
All in all I think today was a success but it feels like a downer. Even though I made it through my 13 hour day, I am feeling a little bit discouraged. I feel like I should be catching on faster and knowing all these dishes better.
Tonight I worked middle, in middle you have to know each item so you can pick out the correct plates and plate the items correctly. The problem with that is, I don't know all the plates 100% yet and I feel like I should. I also am a lot slower at everything than they are and I feel like I am slowing them down.
My feet are sore, my back is aching, and my heart is droopey, I hope that tomorrow is a better day.
I know I am going through nothing what Christ did, but I have to think to myself, He didn't give up even before He knew He was going to the cross. Even though He knew that His end was going to be terrible, he still healed many, and continued His walk.
Please pray for me to stay encouraged, and memorize the dishes better.

Today I went home to spend the day with my family, we went to church together, and spent most of the afternoon together. I brought them back a peice of our infamouse banoffee pie, which has a graham cracker crust, topped with a caramel bannana cream center, and a vanilla whipped cream topping. Absolutely delicious if you ask anyone has has tried it.
I went back to Moes for lunch because, even though I ate it for almost three years straight, I missed the nachos!
I took the lunch to go and me and jenn ate lunch at home while chit chatting a little bit.
Later that night ,me and jenn met up with my Dad at TGI Fridays for the NBA Finals game. It was a very close game, but the Heat managed to squeek by a last second victory with a couple huge three pointers.
Just a pretty plain day, for a pretty plain guy.

Friday, June 3, 2011

After getting my butt handed to me at work last night, I figured I need to come to work ready to rock tonight! I threw on new chef pants,new apron, and a brand new, name embroidered chef jacket. I was feeling real good, you know the feeling you get when you are wearing new clothes for the first time? Now multiply that times three because, my name is on them, I am getting paid to wear them, and because I enjoy the part of the day when I get to wear them.
Tonight I walked in to a crazy den of busy chefs, everyone was talking all at the same time, things needed to be done all at the same time, and we were over booked by a table.
Right off the bat, I prepped tatters. I riced, whipped, and seasoned all three types of potatoes which are bacon, plain, and my all time favorite horseradish!
I am currently trying to memorize the menu because even though it might seem easy, each item has a different plate shape, plate size, plate color, item protein, item vegetable, item starch, item sauce, and finally garnish. So I have possibly one million different combinations running through my head at one time.
So tonight I was put on cold line which has to possibility of three different salads, five desserts, and two cold appetizers; all of which can be made thirty different ways according to the customers needs.
Tonight, because we got slammed, I worked the middle of the line as well as salads, cold apps, and desserts. The middle is the classic position of prepping each plate for protein and veggie. I prep by either throwing the plate in "the window", which is basically a really hot warmer, or if the protein gets a potatoe, I shock the plates and potatoe in the salamander. After step one I assemble the plates by combining the plates, with correct protein, veggie, and sauce. It is a very challenging task when there are twenty plus plates in the mix and you are playing captain unscrambble the puzzle.
I burned my hand tonight because, in the mix of assembling the plates I grabbed a really really hot sautee pan full of butternut squash rissotto. The problem with grabbing the really really hot pans are it takes a little bit for the signal to get to your brain and back that when u get the signal ur already walking with it so you have to take another second to find a spot to set it down. By the time you set it back down, your hand is no longer burned its seared, the skin it tough and you're hand doesn't really hurt that bad.
I had a lot of fun tonight, best part was when the chef came over and asked me how I felt, and told me I was doing a really good job.
I am thankful for God giving me this opportunity but first and formost I am thankful for him putting all the good and bad things in my path/life so I had no other options but to take this job. My parents also had another huge role by listening to God and given my the experiences I've had.
Even though I doubted and wanted to choose other wise, I listened to my parents when they guided me. If I could tell anyone how important that is, I would. I pray that my sisters will look upto me and see my good and bad and learn from me, so that they don't have to go through the pain of falling and so they can go through the same feeling of succeeding.
I love you and miss you, Dad, Mom, Chuck Ris, Kate, Jenn, Grandma, Grandpa and LOUIS/LADY

Thursday, June 2, 2011

You know, I debated last night, should I drive home at 10pm so I can sleep in or should I wake up in the morning and just go right to work? Well this morning I realized I probably made the wrong decision when I woke up, hit the alarm clock, and woke up 2hrs before work!
I threw my clothes on, rushed out the door and went on my way. Luckily, Milwaukee traffic wasn't that bad and I ended up getting to work ten minutes early.
Tonight was supposed to be crazy! We didn't have anyroom for walkins since we were already full from reservations. Since tonight was supposed to be crazy, we had four people staffed, three fully seasoned veterans and little ole me. Hah I was put on salads and desserts, which was my first time. I got a little bit of practice before the rush hit, but when the rush hit, it blindsided me!
I had tickets coming out of my nose we were so busy. Luckily, my supervisor Tiffany came over and helped me get these salads and appetizers out.
All and all it was a very busy night, and a fun night because I basically learned all of pantry side.
Thank you all to everyone who reads my blog and comments. It keeps me going everyday!

My first day off! Today I went and brought my mommy some lunch and she brought the gossip, not really. It was nice to see my mom and family again though.
After lunch, I went over to spend time with my awesome grandparents! My grandma sewed my name in three of my chef jackets while I cut up her watermelon and even offered to clean her gutters! My grandpa came home after a long day volunteering at the hospital and me and him chatted a while. When grandma was done sewing my jackets I invited both of them to dinner tonight because I was cooking spaghetti and chicken alfredo.
Grandma had a meeting so it was going to be jenn, mom, mom, chuck, grandpa, marissa, and me. Dinner went well and so did the company.
After dinner, I went with jenn to her grandmas we chatted, went for ice cream, then I went home and slept!
Even though it was a lazy day for me, I still appreciated how God has blessed me with a dissfuctional family. Some people might laugh and say why do you like a disfunctional family, its not perfect? Well I am one of those people who calls this organized chaose my home, my family, my life.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Today was my second day in a row working! Tonight I manned the grill basically all by myself. Before tonight I had learned all the grill and fryer items except one, the hardest one, the lamb rack.
Tonight we only had a couple reservations so it was a very slow night; a good night for me to learn other things about the line.
I started off frying up a bunch of garnishes like potatoe crisps, chives, leeks, and arugula. Each of the couple dozen dishes all have different starches, veggies, proteins, protein sauce, plates, and plate sauces. So learning the grill and fryer on my second day I thought was a pretty good accomplishment.
There were a bunch of walkins that made my night a little more eventful.
I eventually ended up getting a order for a medium well lamb rack! The lamb rack turned out well, well actually it was medium well ;P, but the actual plate was beautiful! My supervisor took a picture of it so hopefully when I see her next I can have her email it to me and I'll throw it up here.
Last night I thought about how cool my God is, he designed plants to have oil which they use to live and we use to cook food! God didn't make things for just one purpose, he made things worth so much more! It's kinda like we aren't here just to do our jobs, we are here to be an influence to a lost and dying world.
At Kohler they have a reward program for associates who are seen going above and beyond their job. I thought to myself that is so cool! Finally, they will be looking for and noticing people who go out of their way to help; but then again, why do we have to be bribed to help people? Isn't that our right to be able to help people, especially us Christians, who are to walk as Christ.
Just something to think about, how much can going out of your way once a day make a difference to other people? Missionaries, Pastors, therapists devote their lives to it but it doesn't mean they are the only ones who get to do it. Learn, Live, Love Christ